Promoting your site has a lot to do with off page search engine optimization strategies. These strategies will develop backlinks to your website as well as increase traffic and your authority in your topic area.


1. Submit your website to the three major search engines


Submitting your site to a search engine does not mean you will be automatically included in the search engine's index. By doing this you alert the search engine to your website's presence and are added to a list of sites to be crawled.

Here are links to submit your site to Google, Yahoo and MSN:
 

2. Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools and submit a sitemap


We have an excellent tutorial that will step you through this process. Please see Google Webmaster Tutorial for instructions on verifying your site and submitting a sitemap.


3. Submit your site to Google Local Business Center


If you have a business you can submit your site to Google's Local Business Center Submitting your site to Google's Local Business Center is FREE! When potential customers search Maps for local information, they'll find your business. Here is a link to learn more about Google Local Business Center.


4. Do link exchanges


Link building is an extremely important part of SEO. The search engines will look at the amount of links that come into your site as well as the status of the sites that link to you (the amount of traffic those sites get). Although the search engines look more favorably on links that are not reciprocal, exchanging links is a great place to start!
  • Find other websites that have the same topic as your site and send an email to the webmaster asking if he or she would like to do a link exchange.
  • Ask local organizations such as your Chamber of Commerce or Visitor's Bureau if a link exchange could be done.
  • Ask your friends and family members with a website if they would like to exchange links.


5. Submit your site to website directories


There are numerous directories on the Internet that accept paid and un-paid website submissions. You’ll be able to give your listing a title, short description and link to your website. Don’t ever pay someone to “submit your website to 200 directories,” this is not looked highly upon by search engines.

A few web directories to get you started:


6. Get involved in social networking


A great way to develop a following for your website is to get involved in the social networking arena. Becoming active on social networking sites will bring traffic to your site as well as develop back links. The goal of this is to get social with others on the web while promoting your site at the same time.

A few hot social networking sites right now:

There are many more options including niche focuses social networking sites to get involved in.


7. Submit articles to article directories


There are many article directories on the Internet that accept un-paid submissions of articles for inclusion in their article database. When you submit articles you have written to an article directory you give other people permission to reprint your article in their Internet publications as long as the Author Bio is included with the links back to your website.

In your Author bio use descriptive text links and also make sure to include the full url. Here is an example of an Author Bio.

Jane Smith is an accomplished and loved children's book author with numerous credits to her name. She specializes in books for developmentally challenged children which provide not only entertainment but activity as well. You can find her on the web as http://janesgreatbooks.com.

A few article directories to get you started:


8. Consistently add more content


Building up more content on your site is an extremely important part of search engine optimization. When you add more content to your site you are:
  • Providing visitors to your site a great reason to come back.
  • Giving search engines a reason to visit your site often. Search engines want to keep the most updated version of sites in their index and they also want to consistently add new and improved information to it as well.
  • Adding to the searchablility of your site. The more pages your site has in the search engine's index, the more possibilities your site has of being found for keywords searches.


9. Write a blog


Blogging is an exceptional way to consistently add new content to your site! We have a great tutorial that will step you through the process of creating a blog: Blogging With Yola.


There you have it... the basics of search engine optimization; it’s a bit of science, art and marketing mingled together. Nothing is a "given" in the world of search engine optimization; it's not a short process, it is ever-evolving, and it is something that we can help with by providing information and ideas, but do not have control over. We have created these tutorials because we want to see you succeed. Good luck and please share your thoughts, successes and questions with us.